Awesome Aunt

Another day, another thing I love about Stacie. Today I want to write about how Stacie is an incredible aunt to her cool nieces and nephews. I was reminded of this yesterday at our family picnic because Ella and Mia are taking to her as well, soon I may not be the "favorite cousin" anymore, we'll see. Stacie has 5 nieces and nephews, and they really love her, and she is crazy about them. This is one of the things I am most impressed with in Stacie. She really has her priorities straight in spending time and energy with these kids, and she seems to be inexhaustably full of love for them. She's known each of them and been involved in their lives since each was born! When we show up at her house, they come running and jump into her arms. This spring, Stacie and I spent many evenings and Saturday mornings going from soccer game to baseball game etc. trying to make it too as many of their things as we could, because they get really excited when their Aunt Stacie shows up! She goes to performances and dance recitals. She talks about them often when we're together, and knows their personalities and needs very well. She cares for and worries about them. She regularly holds an "Aunts Night" for them them at her house where she does a craft or other activity, gets something fun like pizza for dinner and has a treat. I love to see how Stacie interacts with them, complimenting often, being fun and teasing them (and they tease her back!), correcting lovingly as needed, and rarely is there a big discipline problem because she handles them so well. The kids are always asking when the next Aunts Night is. Recently Aunts Night was a sleepover, something the kids were really excited about, and Stacie showed her true dedication as an aunt by staying up until 1:00 am watching movies with them, then not sleeping too well after that as the kids woke up at various times and she attended to them. I know it sounds cheesy, but I really can't wait until this woman is our children's mother!